News Room

State Controller John Chiang to Keynote January 28th Environmental Legislative Symposium

The Planning and Conservation League and PCL Foundation are pleased to announce the 2012 Symposium keynote is State Controller John Chiang. John Chiang was first elected in November 2006 to serve as Controller of the State of California, the ninth-largest economy in the world. He was elected to serve a second term in November 2010.

Controller Chiang took immediate action to make the State’s finances more transparent and accountable to the public and to weed out waste, fraud and abuse of public funds. The Controller’s aggressive audits have identified more than $3 billion in taxpayer dollars that were denied, overpaid, subject to collection, or resulted in revenues, savings and cost avoidance.

As Controller during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Chiang was forced to delay payments and issue IOUs in order to preserve cash to meet obligations to education and bond holders. His cash management was cited by rating agencies as a benefit to the State. Fitch Ratings lauded the Controller for using “several strategies, including payment deferrals and IOUs, to ensure continuation of priority payments.” Standard & Poor’s said the Controller’s “extraordinary cash management maneuvers” protected the state’s priority payments, and California Municipal Bond Advisor noted, “State Controller Chiang has been a hero of sorts to us during California’s recent distress because he did just what he was supposed to do to protect bondholders.”

Join the League and Foundation as we welcome Controller Chiang to our event. His keynote address is titled “Shared Value: Environmental Policy As Core Business Economics.”